INDIAN MUSLIMS: A HISTORICAL REVIEW

INDIAN MUSLIMS: A HISTORICAL REVIEW Finding the Cause of Their Backwardness Despite incurring huge losses, Muslim leaders and thinkers are still not able to come out mentally of collision course. They are completely unaware of any other approach. In this path, they are welcomed only by deprivation and defeat. T HE British put an end to the Muslim rule over India in 1857, dealing a death blow to the political and cultural supremacy of Muslims. Japan witnessed a similar turn of events in 1945 when America, having completely destroyed its industrial and military power by dropping two atom bombs, succeeded in establishing its total domination over Japan. During the past one and a half centuries after the fall of political power, the Indian Muslims launched a number of movements for their reconstruction at the cost of great sacrifices. Right from the revolt of 1857 to the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992, the sacrifices made by Indian Muslims of the subcontinent are tremendous. If an appraisal is made of these sacrifices in material terms, it will come to a Himalayan magnitude. But all these sacrifices proved to be fruitless and of no avail to Muslims from any respect. Let us now look at the Japanese nation. After the defeat in 1945, they started their struggle for reconstruction, and within a short span of forty years they not only made up for the loss suffered in the Second World War, but also managed to occupy a far more honourable position in the world. What is the reason of this difference between the Muslim and Japanese? There is only one reason and that is traceable to the different strategies of action adopted by the two towards the solution of their problems. The Muslims led by their incompetent leaders opted to destroy their opponents. On the contrary, Japan led by their wise leaders resorted to the policy of self-construction. It is this difference of their approach, which accounts for the sharp difference between the states of the two communities. In the mid-nineteenth century when the British grabbed political power from the Muslims the initial reaction of the Muslim leaders was to recapture their lost power by resorting to violence. Muslim leaders,